TIRUCHI: Members of the Tiruchi-Vedaranyam Salt Satyagraha Platinum Jubilee Padayatra Committee Trust and the Tamil Nadu Pradesh Congress Seva Dal observed the centenary of the Sathyagraha Movement and the 77th anniversary of the Vedaranyam Salt Satyagraha by paying floral tribute at the Salt Satyagraha Memorial here on Friday.

Besides taking a national integration oath, they observed a fast near the memorial.

The Vedaranyam March began on April 13, 1930 from the bungalow of the late Congress leader, T.S.S. Rajan (behind the TTC bus stand) here, from where Rajaji, freedom fighter, along with 100 Congress workers set off for Vedaranyam.

The Vedaranyam March was on the lines of the Dandi Salt Satyagraha March led by Gandhiji himself.

It proved a landmark event in the annals of the freedom movement in South India.

A resolution adopted at the end of the fast said Mahatma Gandhi had stayed in the Dr. Rajan bungalow during his visit to Tiruchi in 1927 and the Vedaranyam March began from the bungalow.

The State Government should convert the bungalow into a memorial and make it `Gandhi Museum'. The participants of the re-enacted Vedaranyam Salt Satyagraha March held in connection with the 40th year of India's Independence in 1988 were honoured by the Government. A total of 135 Congress Seva Dal workers participated in the Platinum Jubilee March in 2005, another resolution said and urged the Government to honour them too. The Mayor, Sarubala R. Tondaiman, the president of the trust, Thalapathi Manikkam, Additional Chief Organiser of the Seva Dal, S. T. Manohar, the treasurer of the Trust, Sakthi Selvaganapathi, and freedom fighters paid tribute.